Exposure to ELF magnetic and ELF-modulated radiofrequency fields: the time course of physiological and cognitive effects observed in recent studies (2001-2005)

Cardiovascular mortality and exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic fields: a cohort study of Swiss railway workers

BACKGROUND

Exposure to intermittent magnetic fields of 16 Hz has been shown to reduce heart rate variability, and decreased heart rate variability predicts cardiovascular mortality. We examined mortality from cardiovascular causes in railway workers exposed to varying degrees to intermittent 16.7 Hz magnetic fields.

METHODS

We studied a cohort of 20,141 Swiss railway employees between 1972 and 2002, including highly exposed train drivers (median lifetime exposure 120.5 muT-years), and less or little exposed shunting yard engineers (42.1 muT-years), train attendants (13.3 muT-years) and station masters (5.7 muT-years). During 464,129 person-years of follow up, 5,413 deaths were recorded and 3,594 deaths were attributed to cardio-vascular diseases. We analyzed data using Cox proportional hazards models.

RESULTS

For all cardiovascular mortality the hazard ratio compared to station masters was 0.99 (95%CI: 0.91, 1.08) in train drivers, 1.13 (95%CI: 0.98, 1.30) in shunting yard engineers, and 1.09 (95%CI: 1.00, 1.19) in train attendants. Corresponding hazard ratios for arrhythmia related deaths were 1.04 (95%CI: 0.68, 1.59), 0.58 (95%CI: 0.24, 1.37) and 10 (95%CI: 0.87, 1.93) and for acute myocardial infarction 1.00 (95%CI: 0.73, 1.36), 1.56 (95%CI: 1.04, 2.32), and 1.14 (95%CI: 0.85, 1.53). The hazard ratio for arrhythmia related deaths per 100 muT-years of cumulative exposure was 0.94 (95%CI: 0.71, 1.24) and 0.91 (95%CI: 0.75, 1.11) for acute myocardial infarction.

CONCLUSION

This study provides evidence against an association between long-term occupational exposure to intermittent 16.7 Hz magnetic fields and cardiovascular mortality.

Perception of the electromagnetic field emitted by a mobile phone

Electromagnetic sensibility refers to the ability to perceive the electromagnetic field (EMF) without necessarily developing health symptoms attributed to EMF exposure. A large sample of young healthy adults (n = 84) performed two forced-choice tasks on the perception of the GSM mobile phone EMF (902 MHz pulsed at 217 Hz), "Was the field on?" and "Did the field change?" (3 conditions x 100 trials for each task, n = 600 trials in total). A monetary prize was announced for good performance (correct response rate > or =75%, n = 600 trials). The performance was no better than expected by chance, and thus none of the participants won the prize. Two participants showed extraordinary performance in one of the task conditions ("Was the field on?", n = 100 trials), with correct response rates of 97% (P = 1.28 x 10(-25)) and 94% (P = 9.40 x 10(-22)), but they failed to replicate the result in the retest of six blocks of the same condition 1 month later. Six participants had reported being able to perceive the mobile phone EMF in the preliminary inquiry, but they performed no better than the others. This study provides empirical evidence against the existence of electromagnetic sensibility to the mobile phone EMF, demonstrating the necessity for replication in EMF studies.

Effects of exposing chicken eggs to a cell phone in "call" position over the entire incubation period

The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of exposing fertile chicken eggs to a cell phone repeatedly calling a ten-digit number at 3-min intervals over the entire period of incubation. A pre-experiment was performed first to adjust incubation conditions in an experimental chamber devoid of metallic content and without automatic turning until the overall performance of hatchability was reproducible in the absence of the cell phone. The experimental period consisted of a series of 4 incubations referred to as "replicates". For each replicate, one batch of 60 eggs was exposed to the immediate environment (<or= 25 cm) of a cell phone in the "call" position (exposed group), while another batch of 60 eggs, 1.5m away from the exposed group and also in the incubation chamber, was exposed to a similar cell phone in the "off" position (sham group). For each replicate, 2 other groups each of 60 eggs were also incubated, one in a standard mini-incubator ("Control I" group) and the second in a standard medium size incubator ("Control II" group). Temperature, relative humidity and electromagnetic fields in the experimental chamber were permanently monitored over the entire experiment. A significantly higher percentage of embryo mortality was observed in the "exposed" compared to the "sham" group in 2 of the 4 replicates (p< .05). In comparison with control groups, additional embryo mortality in the exposed group occurred mainly between Days 9 and 12 of incubation but a causal relationship between the intensity of the electric field and embryo mortality could not be established.

Dosimetric evaluation and comparison of different RF exposure apparatuses used in human volunteer studies

The aim of this study was to provide the information necessary to enable the comparison of exposure conditions in different human volunteer studies published by the research groups at the Universities of Turku, Swinburne, and Zurich. The latter applied a setup optimized for human volunteer studies in the context of risk assessment while the first two applied a modified commercial mobile phone for which detailed dosimetric data were lacking. While the Zurich Setup exposed the entire cortex of the target hemisphere, the other two setups resulted in only very localized exposure of the upper cheek, and concentrated on a limited area of the middle temporal gyrus just above the ear. The resulting peak spatial SAR averaged over 1 g of the cortex was 0.19 W/kg of the Swinburne Setup, and 0.31 W/kg for the Turku Setup, compared to 1 W/kg for the Zurich Setup. The average exposure of the thalamus was 5% and 9% of the Zurich Setup results for the Swinburne and Turku Setups, respectively. In general, the phone-based setup results in only reasonably defined exposures in a very limited area around the maximum exposure; the exposure of the rest of the cortex was low, and may vary greatly as a function of the setup, position, and local anatomy. The analysis confirms the need for a carefully designed exposure setup that exposes the relevant brain areas to a well-defined level in human volunteer studies, and shows that studies can only be properly compared and replicated if sufficiently detailed dosimetric information is available.

Neurophysiological effects of mobile phone electromagnetic fields on humans: a comprehensive review

In recent years a growing number of people have begun to use mobile phone technology. This phenomenon has raised questions and doubts about possible effects on users' brains. This literature review focuses on the human electrophysiological and neuro-metabolic effects of mobile phone (MP)-related electromagnetic fields (EMFs) published in the last 10 years. To this end, all relevant papers have been reported and, subsequently, a literature selection has been carried out by taking several criteria into account, such as: blind techniques, randomization or counter-balancing of conditions and subjects, detail of exposure characteristics and the statistical analyses used. As a result, only the studies meeting the selection criteria have been described, evaluated and discussed further. The main goal of this review is to provide a clear scenario of the most reliable experiments carried out over the last decade and to offer a critical point of view in their evaluation. It is concluded that MP-EMFs may influence normal physiology through changes in cortical excitability and that in future research particular care should be dedicated to both methodological and statistical control, the most relevant criteria in this research field.